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Charles Bélair
Charles Belair Charles Belair, born in Santo Domingo in the 18th century and died October 15, 1802 in Cap-Haïtien, was a Haitian brigadier general. Brigadier General Bélair was one of those who took up arms in the summer of 1802 against General Leclerc. Faced with the revolt sparked by General Leclerc's mission to restore slavery in Haiti, Charles Belair, nephew of Toussaint Louverture, among the most impatient to fight, thought he was called upon to play the great role of liberator. In August 1802, stimulated by his wife, the haughty and courageous Sanité Bélair, he rebelled in the mountains of Verrettes, called his brothers to arms, rallied to his cause all the population of Artibonite, proclaimed himself general-in He was the leader of the natives and withdrew with the discontented ones in the mornes of Cacos. Jerome, Destrade, Larose, etc., joined in this movement which extended in the mountains of Arcahaie. Having obtained some success at first, occupying the heights of the Artibonite with a part of the colonial troops who had been in the pay of General Charles Victoire Emmanuel Leclerc and had passed with the insurgents, Leclerc sent against him Dessalines as much to compromise this one with regard to the Haitians, as to spare his own troops. But he did not know how far the concealment of Dessalines could go, who, leaving with the intention of joining the malcontents, if he found them in force, judged on his arrival that the insurrection of Belair was premature. In addition, his claims to the command in chief being only detrimental to the success of the cause, Dessalines did not hesitate to sacrifice his compatriot who had declared too early by continuing the fight against the unfortunate congeners who had preceded the time marked for delivery. The insurgents of Sans-Souci were forced to throw themselves into the woods. Charles Belair was defeated, and his wife fell into the hands of the French; in order to try to save her, he himself came to be a prisoner, but his act did not provoke the clemency of the conquerors, and he was sent to Cape Town loaded with irons. Six hours after their arrival at Cape Town, a military commission, composed entirely of blacks and mulattoes and presided over by Clervaux, was called to try Charles Belair and his wife, a prisoner with him. These judges did not hesitate to deceive the mistrust of their enemies by the public sacrifice of one of their own; Charles Belair and his wife were unanimously condemned to be hanged. The French general had him shot, in consideration of his rank. The sentence was executed by theirs in the same day. Sanite died bravely, rejecting, as an insult to his courage, the handkerchief with which they wished to blindfold him. The fire of the firing squad extended it beside her husband at the same time that Dessalines massacred three hundred rebels of the Artibonite, who wanted to continue the work of Charles Belair. Their momentary failure, however, did not discourage the insurgents. The bands of Sans-Souci were not long in reappearing. They even forced Petion and Christophe to abandon the land. The partisans of Charles Belair had, on their side, assembled again in the mountains of Arcahaie . The French general Pageot, powerless to reduce them, was forced to return to Port-au-Prince. Honors The high school of Arcahaie which until then had the name of François Duvalier became high school Charles-Belair in 1986. References Charles Bélair https://fr.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Belair Category:Artibonite Category:Haitian people